California leads nation in March layoffs, report says

FILE - In this March 7, 2012, file photo shows job seekers standing line during the Career Expo job fair, in Portland, Ore. Employers pulled back sharply on hiring last month, a reminder that the U.S. economy may not be growing fast enough to sustain robust job growth. The unemployment rate dipped, but mostly because more Americans stopped looking for work. The Labor Department says the economy added 120,000 jobs in March, down from more than 200,000 in each of the previous three months. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
— AP

FILE - In this March 7, 2012, file photo shows job seekers standing line during the Career Expo job fair, in Portland, Ore. Employers pulled back sharply on hiring last month, a reminder that the U.S. economy may not be growing fast enough to sustain robust job growth. The unemployment rate dipped, but mostly because more Americans stopped looking for work. The Labor Department says the economy added 120,000 jobs in March, down from more than 200,000 in each of the previous three months. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
/ AP

Employers in California announced more layoffs than any other state in March, says a new report.

California, the nation’s most-populated state, announced 3,904 of the planned 37,880 national layoffs, according to the study by Challenger, Gray and Christmas released this month. The total layoffs in March were the lowest nationwide since May 2011, when 37,135 were announced.

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The study doesn’t specify when the layoffs would happen, hence the term planned. Also, layoffs are counted in the state where the employer is headquartered. For example, an employee laid off in Colorado by a California-based employer would be counted in the study as a planned layoff in California.

Nationally, layoffs for the first quarter of this year are up 9.4 percent from last year, with 143,094 planned, the report said. Texas led the list, with 26,371 layoffs planned.

Planned jobs, however, are also down significantly so far this year, according to the report. From January to March, employers announced they plan to hire for 30,678 positions. That’s a nearly 73 percent decrease from the first three months of 2011, when employers announced 112,692 planned jobs.

In the month of March, employers said they expect to add 12,390 jobs, a rise from 10,869 planned jobs in the same month last year.

Those numbers, however, depend on employers announcing their hiring plans, and many don’t do that, said James Pedderson, Challenger Gray’s public relations director.

In San Diego, David Narevsky, a business analyst with the Workforce Partnership, said the data, on the surface, reflected a slow job market.

“We are not seeing significant expansion of companies, rather we are seeing that temporary hires are not being continued. ... It is not the expansion that everyone was hoping for and thought was on the horizon,” he said.

While temporary employees may be hired permanently less frequently, temporary assignments appear to be getting longer.

Christa Shapiro, the regional vice president for Adecco Staffing in San Diego, said some assignments are going six months to a year, about double what they used to be. “I would say companies are utilizing people to fill-in in where they would have hired full time employees. They just don’t want to go through another layoff,” she said.

Shapiro said January was slow but opportunities picked up last month, especially for work in medical device production and leisure industries such as golf and extreme sports.

Nationwide, the report said North Carolina had the second-most layoff announcements in March at 3,717, and Washington had 3,208. The state with the fewest was Delaware, with 14. Most of the job cuts came from telecommunications, with T-Mobile merging call centers and laying off 1,900 employees, the report said. Verizon Wireless cut 750 from a call center.

For the first quarter, the consumer-products sector had announced the most layoffs, at 18,438. The retail sector announced trimming 16,691 jobs from January to March.

Government jobs have suffered few job cuts, announcing the loss of 5,750 this year, according to the report.

California and San Diego County unemployment statistics for March will be released April 20.

Nationally, here are the states that have announced the most layoffs through March:

Texas - 26,371

New York - 14,541

North Carolina - 11,829

Illinois - 10,829

Ohio - 9,640

The top five reasons for the layoffs are:

Closing - 14,805

Restructuring - 9,480

Cost-cutting - 5,486

Loss of Contract - 2,928

Voluntary Severance - 2,109

Employers also expect to add 12,390 jobs. Here are the top five fields and the number of jobs:

Computer - 4,000

Health Care/Products - 1,630

Retail - 1,300

Automotive - 1,086

Transportation - 649

Through 2012, the consumer products sector had announced the most layoffs at 18,438.

The retail sector announced trimming 16,691 jobs from January to March.

Government jobs have suffered few job cuts, announcing the loss of 5,750 this year, according to the report.

California and San Diego County unemployment statistics for March will be released on April 20.